President Donald Trump's administration appears to be "faltering under the weight of its arrogance and accumulated mistakes" following the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night, a sign that the "energy and self-confidence" Trump's administration once exuded is starting to slip away, according to a new analysis.
During the event, a lone gunman fired several rounds inside the Washington Hilton, striking one Secret Service agent in their bulletproof vest, according to reports. Trump and several cabinet officials in attendance were swiftly evacuated from the event, and no one was killed. The alleged shooter, Cole Allen, was arrested at the scene.
David Frum, a staff writer for The Atlantic, argued in a new article on Sunday that in the past, MAGA would have used the event to go after their political enemies, much like they did after the death of the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk. However, Trump has been imploring MAGA to support other aims, like completing his signature ballroom, which seems to be "radically beside the point," Frum wrote.
"Trump cares a lot about his ballroom," he wrote. "People who seek his favor have learned to care, too. But still, attempted murder as an after-the-fact justification for a home renovation? It seems not only radically beside the point but also quite a humiliating climbdown from last fall’s project to use the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk to consolidate MAGA’s political domination."
"It all feels like the ending of a chapter, a milestone of an authoritarian project’s faltering under the weight of its arrogance and accumulated mistakes," he added.